My Nightime Dogfighting skills stink…
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Good point. I do keep a keen eye on the RWR. I just have to keep remembering that just because he’s emitting, if I am beaming, he may not see me.
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I totally agree, but the enemy presses the attack, I feel I have to engage, in my attempt to maintain the mission parameters and attempt to be successful in achieving them. I do use sensors and long distance attacks (many times lofting AMRAAM’s) but many times, as would be expected, they turn, outrace them and return to engage. Recently I am not able to maintain station as I run out of missiles, or have to turn and run from attacks, and/or lose my wing, all of which are a mission failure. But good advice, thank you.
Save your shots until the target is within RTR (assuming of course WezTA is observable) and you’ll lose much less to the runners.
By default, the CAP is 30 minutes, but if you run out of missiles after the first wave, do an AWACS call to Check Out and he will clear you to RTB and you won’t get a station time failure.
AI failure is almost a given unfortunately.
One last thing, it’s a cheat and I hate to tell you, but reduce the actual station time to 1 second - this way you only have to cross the first CAP point to meet the mission success criteria - anything achieved after that is a bonus.
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I did not realize that a check-out AWACS call would do that. Thank you,.
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I think that part of the problem is that AI doesn’t seem to be affected by visibility conditions. They will happily fly and fight at night in what is, by any reasonable definition, strictly a day fighter. The night skies should belong to advanced birds, and even they shouldn’t risk getting into a dogfight.
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I think that part of the problem is that AI doesn’t seem to be affected by visibility conditions. They will happily fly and fight at night in what is, by any reasonable definition, strictly a day fighter. The night skies should belong to advanced birds, and even they shouldn’t risk getting into a dogfight.
Also, I’m no military mastermind, but I’d take more radical measures than send two fighters at a time to protect Seoul if it was evident that the enemy air force will be absolutely spamming said area. Especially if 1) I was the world’s highest-budget military or 2) Seoul was where most of my country lives and where most of its GDP comes from AI will be AI
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I agree, you’ll need to face the numbers with numbers.
Priority number one should be to bring your airframe home in one piece, not to die a more or less flaming heroic death facing impossible odds. Reducing the station time (as was already suggested) is very helpful, too.
All the best, Uwe
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Does a real life fighter pilot wants to dogfight at night?
My bet is: not a single chance.
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yes but with many limitations. I have heard stories where in a night dogfight after some turns, the guy mixed up the strobe light with the wind turbine flash light.Also nowadays with NVGs and the like, it is possible.
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Also nowadays with NVGs and the like, it is possible
Depends on what “NVGs” you are thinking about.
This :
Maybe.
…
That :
… mmm … personally I would say, “no way” (G factor)
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I agree, you’ll need to face the numbers with numbers.
Priority number one should be to bring your airframe home in one piece, not to die a more or less flaming heroic death facing impossible odds. Reducing the station time (as was already suggested) is very helpful, too.
All the best, Uwe
Exactly, shoot all your missiles at max range and run away like a scalded cat!
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Exactly what I have been doing… shooting and turning away as far as I can to either keep lock or breaking to outrun a missile headed towards me. I usually hit burner to gain altitude to try and hit Rtr for release, but the enemy (SU-30, Mig 29) is usually successful in outrunning that as well. But upon reaching higher altitude the F-16 becomes very sluggish so maneuvering to defend against a missile launched against me is a task. I have found that with heavy medium-heavy enemy traffic, I’m lucky to stay on station in a Barcap for 15 minutes.
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I agree, you’ll need to face the numbers with numbers.
Priority number one should be to bring your airframe home in one piece, not to die a more or less flaming heroic death facing impossible odds. Reducing the station time (as was already suggested) is very helpful, too.
All the best, Uwe
With this in mind, is there a way to simply add more fighters to an existing 2 F-16 Barcap mission? Or is the only way to add planes is to create an additional package or abort the existing Barcap package and redo a new package in it’s place?
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As hard as I try, my situational awareness becomes all screwed up. Of course, it doesn’t help that my two aircraft Barcap is set upon by 6 enemy fighters from 3 directions.
My apologies for posting a really unnecessary post, but I feel better for doing it (ok, not really).:)
What enemy fighters? Mig29, Mig23, Mig21?
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As stated previously, I would get the enemy to follow you. Then drag them into range of friendly SAM sites. Once you see them turn cold you can press on them if they are a reasonable range away.
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Also, I’m no military mastermind, but I’d take more radical measures than send two fighters at a time to protect Seoul if it was evident that the enemy air force will be absolutely spamming said area. Especially if 1) I was the world’s highest-budget military or 2) Seoul was where most of my country lives and where most of its GDP comes from AI will be AI
True, or sending 2 jets on a DEAD to Pyongyang on Day One.;) That’s a big reason I’m glad it’s so easy to add “non package” missions in BMS.
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Good point. I do keep a keen eye on the RWR. I just have to keep remembering that just because he’s emitting, if I am beaming, he may not see me.
True. IMHO, as much as we enjoy the realism BMS achieves, in our world we need to keep in mind the realities of working with AI and working through a pc monitor. In BMS, if BVR fails and I’m in a dogfight, I’ll keep a bandit in the Notch , especially when I’m rebuilding energy, until I’m ready to attack. My thinking is at least I’m keeping him in a spot I can see him.
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…I usually hit burner to gain altitude to try and hit Rtr for release, but the enemy (SU-30, Mig 29) is usually successful in outrunning that as well. But upon reaching higher altitude the F-16 becomes very sluggish so maneuvering to defend against a missile launched against me is a task.
EDIT: Don’t go high, after launching at your target…Instead, turn away from your target, then once you hear “Pitbull”, flip over on your back & go low. Gain as much speed as fast as you can!!
Also, are you familiar with AA missile limitations??? Specially that they may be faster than you, but they do lose energy quickly when it has to turn.
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Mostly Mig 29 and Su-30s
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EDIT: Don’t go high, after launching at your target…Instead, turn away from your target, then once you hear “Pitbull”, flip over on your back & go low. Gain as much speed as fast as you can!!
Also, are you familiar with AA missile limitations??? Specially that they may be faster than you, but they do lose energy quickly when it has to turn.
I only do nose up to increase the time to Rtr , so before launch. Yes I do weave and turn in addition to burning and going low in order to defeat missiles, which I usually am able to. Thanks.
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With this in mind, is there a way to simply add more fighters to an existing 2 F-16 Barcap mission? Or is the only way to add planes is to create an additional package or abort the existing Barcap package and redo a new package in it’s place?
You should be able to achieve this using “mission commander” (an excellent tool by Falcas). Using MC it is also possible to move flights among different packages.
All the best, Uwe